Plumcroft
Primary School
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Pupil Premium
Pupil premium strategy statement – Plumcroft Primary School
This statement details our school’s use of pupil premium (and recovery premium) funding to help improve the attainment of our disadvantaged pupils.
It outlines our pupil premium strategy, how we intend to spend the funding in this academic year and the outcomes for disadvantaged pupils last academic year.
School overview
| Detail | Data |
| Number of pupils in school | 960 |
| Proportion (%) of pupil premium eligible pupils | 24.69% |
| Academic year/years that our current pupil premium strategy plan covers (3 year plans are recommended) | 2021/22 – 2023/24 |
| Date this statement was published | January 23 |
| Date on which it will be reviewed | Annually |
| Statement authorised by | Richard Slade, Headteacher |
| Pupil premium lead | Assistant Headteachers and Year Group Leaders |
| Governor / Trustee lead | Tamasin Keeper, Lead for Pupil Premium |
Funding overview
| Detail | Amount |
| Pupil premium funding allocation this academic year | £394,375.00 |
| Recovery premium funding allocation this academic year | £10,041.25 |
|
Pupil premium (and recovery premium*) funding carried forward from previous years (enter £0 if not applicable) *Recovery premium received in academic year 2021 to 2022 can be carried forward to academic year 2022 to 2023. Recovery premium received in academic year 2022 to 2023 cannot be carried forward to 2023 to 2024. |
£0 |
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Total budget for this academic year If your school is an academy in a trust that pools this funding, state the amount available to your school this academic year |
£404,416.25 |
Part A: Pupil premium strategy plan
Statement of intent
Pupil Premium is additional funding to help ensure disadvantaged pupils achieve results in line with all pupils nationally and to close any in-school attainment gap. The funding is intended to support children to develop positive learning behaviours and equip them with the skills and qualities to become happy, confident learners. At Plumcroft Primary School, we are determined to give our children every chance to realise their potential. We have high aspirations for our children and strongly believe that dedication and commitment to learning make all the difference.
High-quality teaching is at the heart of our approach, with a focus on areas in which disadvantaged pupils require the most support. This is proven to have the greatest impact on closing the disadvantage attainment gap and at the same time will benefit the non-disadvantaged pupils in our school. Implicit in the intended outcomes detailed below, is the intention that non-disadvantaged pupils’ attainment will be sustained and improved alongside progress for their disadvantaged peers.
Through high quality teaching, interventions, bespoke support for children and families, pupils gain confidence to engage fully in their learning. Through the curriculum, pupils have the opportunity to learn a wide aspect of global issues, communities and facts to widen their general knowledge.
We will also consider the challenges faced by vulnerable pupils, such as those who have a social worker and young carers.
One of our main aims are that the children are taught to read well through a systematic, phonics programme and that they develop good comprehension skills and a love of reading and books. Pupil
Premium children’s oral language development and vocabulary acquisition improves and they have the confidence and ability to articulate their learning to a range of audiences.
We aim for all of our Pupil Premium children and their families to feel happy and supported in school, and their well-being is at the centre of everything we do. We want them all to have access to a wide range of extra-curricular activities and ultimately, reach their full potential so they can confidently move on to the next phase of their education and their future life choices.
Key principles include detailed analysis of progress where each child’s needs and any barriers to their learning are addressed and strategies implemented to address these. The focus of our pupil premium strategy is to support disadvantaged pupils to achieve to their full potential, including progress for those who are already high attainers.
Our approach will be responsive to common challenges and individual needs, rooted in robust diagnostic assessment, targeted planning and implementation of the curriculum and professional discussions to ensure good progression. These approaches will complement each other to help pupils excel. To ensure they are effective we will:
- Ensure disadvantaged pupils are challenged in the work that they’re set
- Act early to intervene at the point need is identified
- Adopt a whole school approach in which all staff take responsibility for disadvantaged pupils’ outcomes and raise expectations of what they can achieve
Challenges
This details the key challenges to achievement that we have identified among our disadvantaged pupils.
| Challenge number | Detail of challenge |
| 1 | Assessments, observations, and discussions with pupils indicate underdeveloped oral language skills and vocabulary gaps among many disadvantaged pupils. These are evident from Reception through to KS2 and in general, are more prevalent among our disadvantaged pupils than their peers. |
| 2 | Assessment and observations indicate gaps in children’s maths development especially problem solving skills – linked to oral development. |
| 3 | Social and economic challenges experienced by families including housing, finance, family literacy, domestic violence, children’s health and parental anxieties and skills. |
| 4 | Our assessments and observations indicate that the education and wellbeing of many of our disadvantaged pupils has been impacted by partial school closures to a greater extent than for other pupils. These findings are supported by national studies. |
| 5 | Pupil premium children are more likely to have limited experiences outside of school, limited experience of further education and therefore lower aspirations for the future. |
| 6 | It has been identified through detailed debate and investigation alongside our School Improvement Partner that disadvantaged pupils who are also black African/Caribbean are our biggest underperforming group in reading writing and maths across the school. |
Intended outcomes
This explains the outcomes we are aiming for by the end of our current strategy plan, and how we will measure whether they have been achieved.
| Intended outcome | Success criteria |
| Improve oral, language and reading skills for PP children | By the end of the academic year July 2024 PP achievement in EYFS GLD will match or exceed national and the gap between PP and others will be reduced. End of key stages there will be no identified significant gaps between PP and their peers in literacy. By 2024, the number of PP children that pass the phonics test in year 1 increases. |
| Improve maths knowledge and oral skills and processes for problem solving | By 2024 -end of key stages there will be no identified significant gaps between PP and their peers |
| Ensure families feel confident to approach the school to get support and advice and be signposted to relevant agencies. | All families have a positive relationship with school and feel empowered to seek advice. |
| Curriculum design and enrichment activities raise aspirations for PP children | Children are able to talk confidently about their learning and the wider global curriculum. PP children demonstrate good attitudes to learning and have raised aspirations for their future. There is good participation in cultural activities and after school clubs by PP children |
Activity in this academic year
This details how we intend to spend our pupil premium (and recovery premium) funding this academic year to address the challenges listed above.
Teaching (for example, CPD, recruitment and retention)
Budgeted cost: £123,980
| Activity | Evidence that supports this approach | Challenge number(s) addressed |
| Read Write Inc Teacher Training | There is an abundance of research stating the Read Write Inc is a highly effective programme, which has significant impact on pupil progression. | 1,3,6 |
| Read Write Inc online portal | The online portal comprises of many videos of live lessons and targeted pathways to support teaching staff in implementing effective teaching strategies in phonics. This is particularly relevant for pupils who have been exposed to less vocabulary, which is often pupil premium children. | 1,3, 6 |
| Read Write Inc tutoring training | Teachers and TAs have had access to training for tutoring which ensures that disadvantaged pupils who are low achieving have a session every day with a member of staff for ten minutes to ensure that they keep up with their peers effectively. | 1,3, 6 |
| Full-time TAs in year one to support pupil premium pupils | There is a lot of evidence suggesting that smaller groups are beneficial for pupils in the early stages of their education. These TAs have been able to roll out the targeted tutoring interventions mentioned above ensuring that disadvantaged pupils are provided with sessions teaching to their gaps to ensure they develop in line with their peers in school. | 1,2,3, 5, 6 |
| Teaching assistant for interventions in year two | Two TAs in year two have been working with pupils conducting interventions since the beginning of this academic year. They have been trained in Helicopter storytelling, which supports | 1,3, 6 |
| pupils’ language development as well as story box and many other interventions. These are ensuring that pupil premium children receive targeted support to progress in line with their peers. | ||
| Jigsaw training programme |
The Jigsaw programme is a highly regarded PSHE programme, which is taught throughout the school. This supports pupils’ emotional well-being and can be particularly beneficial to pupil premium children. Some pupils are accessing small groups planned around Jigsaw concepts to ensure they are supported emotionally.
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3,4, 6 |
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Professional development through training and support for Early Careers Teachers. Ensuring an effective teacher is at the front of every class, and that every teacher is supported to continue improving. |
EEF – pupil premium guidance: CPD is the key ingredient of a successful school and should rightly be the top priority for Pupil Premium spending. | 1,2,4,5,6 |
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Provision of resources, training, and leadership and management of synthetic phonics across EYFS, KS1 and LKS2 |
EEF toolkit – phonics has a positive impact overall and is an important component in the development of early reading skills; particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. | 1,4 |
| To enable to participate in educational visits/visitors, regardless of family incomes. Educational visits provide a key stimulus for writing. | An EEF trial involving 3 primary schools based on writing from a memorable experience, boosted writing levels by up to 9 months. | 1,4, 5 |
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Reflective Learning for Year 2 to 6 academic catchup in Reading and Maths |
Analysis has shown that children who have unidentified gaps in their learning from previous educational settings or as a result of barriers to learning and COVID cannot process and digest new learning. |
1,2,4,6 |
Targeted academic support (for example, tutoring, one-to-one support, structured interventions)
Budgeted cost: £172,780
| Activity | Evidence that supports this approach | Challenge number(s) addressed |
| Jigsaw implementation |
The Jigsaw programme is a highly regarded PSHE programme, which is taught throughout the school. This supports pupils’ emotional well-being and can be particularly beneficial to pupil premium children. Some pupils are accessing small groups planned around Jigsaw concepts to ensure they are supported emotionally.
|
3,4, 6 |
|
Focussed interventions across KS2 in Reading, Writing and Maths |
Structured interventions delivered by Tas, HLTAs and experienced Teachers to help close identified gaps in children’s learning in terms of ethnicity, gender, EAL and disadvantaged. | 1,2,3,4,6 |
|
Reflective Learning for Year 2 to 6 academic catchup in Reading and Maths |
Analysis has shown that children who have unidentified gaps in their learning from previous educational settings or as a result of barriers to learning and COVID cannot process and digest new learning. |
1,2,4,6 |
| Speech and Language teaching assistants deliver specific interventions either individually or in a group to children who need support. | These sessions have shown to be extremely beneficial in helping to accelerate children’s phonics’ and reading. | 1,3, 6 |
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RWI support and intervention are allocated across ks1 focussing on children who are struggling with phonics and therefore literacy.
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Phonics approaches have a strong evidence base indicating a positive impact on pupils, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds. Targeted phonics interventions have been shown to be more effective when delivered as regular sessions. Children benefit both academically and in confidence from these 1:1 sessions increasing their resilience when reading seems more challenging. |
1,3, 6 |
| Writing interventions across KS1 and KS2. | Writing interventions in years one, two, four and six are taking place which are ensuring that more disadvantaged pupils meet the expect level of development by the end of key stages 1 and 2. These are also targeting pupils who could reach the greater depth standard. | 1,3, 6 |
| Storybox sessions |
Storybox sessions bring books to life and enable pupils to access their learning and learn key vocabulary around the teaching in Literacy. Many pupil premium pupils have accessed this in KS1 on a 1:6 basis daily.
|
1,3. 6 |
| Purchase of additional reading books so pupils can borrow and read high quality texts at home. | Regular, independent reading at home is important to develop pupils’ fluency and breadth of reading. It is also a way for parents/carers to support their children’s learning. | 1,3, 6 |
Wider strategies (for example, related to attendance, behaviour, wellbeing)
Budgeted cost: £107,656
| Activity | Evidence that supports this approach | Challenge number(s) addressed |
| Parental engagement sessions for families with a focus on how to support their children’s phonic development. Leading to improved reading skills and confidence. |
Parental engagement sessions where the focus is on supporting children with their reading have a strong engagement. According to EEF, improvements can then be seen in the progress the children make.
|
1,3,4, 6 |
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Deputy Headteacher meet with children who are demonstrating challenging behaviour – decide strategies for improvement to help them develop positive behaviour for learning.
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Historical evidence within school shows that PP children with social and emotional needs that work closely with a specific adult are able to engage more with their learning and have an increased positive attitude towards their learning and themselves.
|
1,2,3,4, 6 |
| Children who are identified as needing extra emotional support receive counselling from |
We have used this service for a substantial amount of time. We see children benefit significantly from these sessions with improved self-esteem and the ability to concentrate better in class |
3,4,5 |
| outside specialist counsellors |
due to them addressing issues in their counselling sessions. Parents are also positive about the benefits to their children. |
|
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Children who would like music lessons identified and allocated lessons and supplied with a school instrument.
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Children have the opportunity to develop their skills in an area that would have been beyond their family’s resources. This helps them to be more aspirational and believe they are “can do” people. Historically we have seen children improve in their learning behaviours due to improved selfconfidence. |
1,2,3,4,5, 6 |
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Children attend sports clubs of their choice to develop both skills and self-confidence.
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Children have the opportunity to develop their skills. This helps them to be more aspirational and believe they are “can do” people. Historically we have seen children improve in their learning behaviours due to improved self confidence |
1,2,3,4,5 |
| Children attend wrap around care to support the children’s attendance and punctuality. This also supports the families to access education and employment. | Access to learning, wellbeing and engagement with families is improved resulting in children making greater progress and parents feeling supported within the school community. |
Total budgeted cost: £ 404,000
Part B: Review of the previous academic year
Outcomes for disadvantaged pupils
Detailed analysis provided by our School Improvement Partner has been scrutinised by SLT and, with the support of Year Group Leaders, all teaching staff have been made aware of challenges faced by different groups of children.
Internal data at the end of EYFS, KS1 and KS2 showed that the gap in the performance of disadvantaged pupils has continued to be impacted by the loss of learning during COVID.
Restraints resulting from COVID have impacted Plumcroft’s traditional community projects, local visits, external visitors, volunteers and other cultural events that enhanced children’s learning opportunities.
Targeted interventions for disadvantaged pupils have been evaluated and ineffective interventions have been removed. Tracking of pupils using our internal data systems across all phases continues to drive intervention activities into the 2022/23 academic year.
Compared to other groups in the school, the attainment of disadvantaged pupils in EYFS is low.
In Year 1 phonics, disadvantaged pupils performed less well than their peers in school, but better than the LA average for this group. Specific demographics were identified and key interventions put in place for 2022/23.
In KS1, disadvantaged pupils performed less well than non-disadvantaged pupils, but with a narrower gap than the LA, thus performing better than their LA counterparts. Specific demographics were identified and key interventions put in place for 2022/23.
In mathematics, for disadvantaged pupils, there is a 3-year improvement trend showing a narrowing of the gaps over time. The gap in reading and writing fluctuates over this time.
In reading, writing and mathematics combined at greater depth, disadvantaged pupils performed broadly in line with or above LA averages.
In KS2, in reading and writing, there has been a slight improvement trend in outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, however gaps are not closing because non-disadvantaged pupils are performing equally well. In mathematics, there is no clear pattern for disadvantaged pupils over time. The gap has slightly widened; this is a targeted area for 2022/23.
Although the performance of some groups of disadvantaged pupils varies across subjects, specific demographic groups have been identified and intense support put in place to acknowledge and address this.
A review of attendance procedures has ensured that the effective collaboration with the Attendance Advisory Service is in place to support and encourage good school attendance, especially for our disadvantaged pupils.
Externally provided programmes
Please include the names of any non-DfE programmes that you used your pupil premium (or recovery premium) to fund in the previous academic year.
| Programme | Provider |
| Reflective Learning – Academic Catchup | Reflective Learning |
| Counselling | Independent Counsellors |
| RWI | Ruth Miskin |
| Jigsaw | Jigsaw |
| Talk for Writing | Pie Corbett |
| Accelerated Reader and STAR Reader and Maths | Renaissance Learning |